Willow's Secret
by CrimsonTears1
Summary: A not-so-guilty Sirius in the Whomping Willow episode, telling the story to Remus. One-shot, R/R, please.


Title: The Willow's Secret  
  
Author: CrimsonTears  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing belonging not to me. ^_^ Yes, everything belongs to the great Rowling (bow, bow).  
  
***  
  
Fatal is the one word best used to describe the meeting between a human and a werewolf on the night of a full moon. Either the werewolf or the human would die at the meeting. Remus, luckily, had never met a human when he transformed, so he was still alive. He looked over at his friend, or rather, the person he had thought was his friend until last night.  
  
Today was the day after the full moon. Last night Snape had gotten past the Willow and into the tunnel, had gone along it to the Shrieking Shack, opened the trap door that held him as the wolf in, and James had pulled him out. He remembered nothing of it, however. Everything had been told to him by Dumbledore. In fact, he, James, Sirius and Snape were all in Dumbledore's office right now. Sirius had done it this time; they were about thirty minutes into the lecture and it showed no signs of letting up.  
  
"Mr. Snape, what you did last night was irresponsible and stupid. Not only did you put yourself in danger, you also put Remus in danger. Do you realize that if Remus had injured or killed you, Mr. Snape, then he would have been killed by the Ministry?" Dumbledore paused. He hadn't told them this bit yet, even though Remus had already known it. "I am also quite disappointed in you, Mr. Black."  
  
Remus's prediction turned out to be wrong. "Black, you will serve two months of detention with Filch. You will be notified of the times and jobs you will do be owl, and you will lose fifty House points." Snape was smirking at the punishment.  
  
"Mr. Snape, you will serve two months of detention with Mr. Black; you have lost your House fifty points also," the smirk was gone from his face now, "I trust you know that telling anyone, and I repeat, anyone, about Mr. Lupin's condition is strictly forbidden. You will be expelled if anyone finds out; same for you, Mr. Black. Mr. Snape, you may inform Mr. Malfoy that he will serving detention with you two, and he has lost you house twenty points as well." Snape's jaw dropped, and Remus was beginning to wonder what exactly was going on. "You two may leave now." Remus glared at Sirius as he left, but he didn't see. His head was hung low in shame, something Remus had never seen before.  
  
After the door closed, Dumbledore continued. "Mr. Potter, you will receive fifty points for your actions tonight." James nodded.  
  
"Thank you, Professor. I really don't know what came over Sirius, he would never do this ordinarily; he would never tell anyone! I promise!"  
  
Dumbledore smiled slightly. "I know." The smile left his face. "It just makes me wonder- what would cause him to do something like that?" Remus looked at James, who shared his look of bewilderment. "You may go now, boys."  
  
Remus stood and followed James to the door, but he stopped right before he stepped out of it.  
  
"Professor?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Do you know why Sirius told Snape that?" he asked, and he knew all of his pent up emotions were showing right then, in that instant.  
  
"Yes, Mr. Lupin, I do. Now go."  
  
And Remus left, now wondering even more than before why Sirius had told that greasy git his secret, if only because Dumbledore had made a point of it.  
  
***  
  
"Padfoot, tell us why you told Snape!"  
  
"For the last time, James, I can't tell you, I won't tell you, and I refuse to say anything else relating to this matter for the rest of the night." Sirius closed the curtains on his bed.  
  
James flung them open. "You owe us an explanation!"  
  
"I don't owe you anything, James Reginald Potter, and the only person who I will tell is Remus!" Sirius's eyes flashed dangerously. "Because I owe that to him, and no one else." He closed the curtains again, and that time they stayed shut.  
  
***  
  
"Hey, Padfoot?" Remus watched as his 'friend' turned around, a flash of hope running through his eyes.  
  
"Yeah, Moony?" he said, perfectly calm.  
  
"James said you had something to tell me. I was wondering if now was a good time?" he asked, but it wasn't a question, and they both knew it.  
  
"Yeah, I do," he said, lowering his head and staring at the ground.  
  
"So start talking."  
  
***  
  
Sirius was walking down a corridor in the dungeons trying to find the entrance to the Slytherin dormitories. Although he had no luck so far, he was positive he would find it soon. He had even brought along James's cloak so he wouldn't have to go back to the dorm to get it. He thought he had taken every precaution, but he was wrong.  
  
"Hey, Gryff! What're you doing down here?" He turned around to see that Malfoy and Snape were following him, with Malfoy's other little cronies- Crabbe and Goyle. This would have been easy for him to get out of if the other half of the Quidditch team just hadn't 'happened' to be coming down the hall from the other way.  
  
"Aw, shit," he muttered under his breath. Even the invisibility cloak couldn't get him out of that one, so he decided to fight his way out, man by man. After he took out the last of the Slytherins on one side, Snape and Malfoy cornered him. Snape summoned his wand.  
  
"We know something's wrong with Remus," he said. "Now tell us before we curse you into oblivion!" They tortured him for hours on end-  
  
***  
  
"SIRIUS!" Remus fairly shrieked(rather girly-ishly), "I want the real story."  
  
"Fine," he muttered.  
  
***  
  
Sirius was walking down a corridor in the dungeons trying to find the entrance to the Slytherin dormitories. Although he had no luck so far, he was positive he would find it soon. He had even brought along James's cloak so no one would see him.  
  
He had just spotted Malfoy and Crabbe heading along the halls and followed them, thinking that he would just follow them straight to the dorms. He walked closer to them and caught snippets of their conversation.  
  
"-now that we're almost positive he's a werewolf-"  
  
"-and all we have to do is figure out-"  
  
"-how to get past the Willow now!"  
  
"-then we take pictures of him transformed-"  
  
"-show to Ministry-"  
  
"-expelled-"  
  
"-show those stupid Gryffs-"  
  
"-wouldn't the Ministry already know?-"  
  
"-not angry, scared masses of parents. Who knows what they'd do-"  
  
Sirius, realizing what they were talking about a while ago, followed them even closer. After finding out their plans, he would report them to Dumbledore. Everything was working smoothly until he tripped on the hem of the cloak. Malfoy and Crabbe turned around immediately.  
  
"Who's there?" Malfoy snapped, and Sirius could fairly see the icicles forming outside of his mouth from his frosty tone.  
  
"It's those damn Gryffs, I just know it," Crabbe rasped. "They've come to try and stop us."  
  
Malfoy paused for a while, appearing to be considering his options, and while he did, Sirius had no choice but to remain frozen on the hard, cold floor as to not alert them to his whereabouts.  
  
"Why don't we just go," Crabbe continued after a time. "It's getting cold down here and I don't think anyone was really following us."  
  
"Why don't we wait just another minute," Malfoy said, his beady eyes scanning the corridor once again. Sirius realized, after a time, that the back of his shoe was visible if you looked very hard into the shadows of the hall. Unfortunately, Malfoy noticed it at the same time he did. "I guess we really did have a visitor after all, Crabbe."  
  
Realizing that he had no hope left of finding the Slytherin common room or discovering the rest of their plans, he got up and ran like hell. He felt the cloak being torn off and immediately stopped and turned around to get it. No matter what happened, he couldn't lose the cloak. It was one of James's most prized possessions. He turned around to see Malfoy waving it about. "Give it back," he said, his eyes flashing dangerously.  
  
"Is this cloak special to you, Black?" he taunted, snapping the cloak in front of Sirius's face. "What's it worth to you?"  
  
"Give it back, Malfoy!" Sirius yelled at him.  
  
"I'll give it back if you tell me a secret," Malfoy said. "All you have to do is tell me how to get past the Willow."  
  
"I don't know how to get past the Willow," Sirius said, as serious as ever.  
  
"I know you do, Black, and you'll tell me if you want to see this cloak again!" Malfoy said threateningly. So they're giving me a choice between the cloak and Remus. He turned his back on them and started walking down the hall. He had enough money in his bank account to buy James a new cloak, but he could never get a new Remus. Besides, he liked the one he had right now just fine. "Get back here Black, or I'll rip this cloak to shreds!"  
  
He had enough with Malfoy and his games. He Accioed the cloak and ran off into the passage leading to the Great Hall, gripping the cloak tightly so that they couldn't Accio it back too easily. On his way to the Great Hall, he ran into Peter, who had been given the task of finding him.  
  
"Sirius, I've been looking everywhere for you!" Peter said, his voice hoarse, most likely from shouting.  
  
"Run, Peter, run!" Sirius half-shouted at him, as he herded Peter along the hall until he got the idea. In one of his more brilliant streaks, he gave Peter the cloak and told him to make a run for it to the Gryffindor tower before anyone spotted him. He watched Peter disappear under the cloak and waited for Malfoy and Crabbe. They never followed him, so he went back into the dungeons to try to see if he could find the Slytherin dorms(again), and possibly the anti-Remus/Gryyfindor meeting.  
  
As was his luck, he ran into Malfoy and Crabbe, patrolling the halls. They spotted him a few seconds after he saw them, giving him no chance to form a sneak attack or anything at all.  
  
"Look, Black is back! What did you come for this time, to find your buddy's glasses? Does he always drop them when he leaves Potions and that's why he's an utter failure in Charms? Or is Potter just stupid?" Malfoy said. Okay, that was random, Sirius thought.  
  
"Actually, I'm here to tell you how to get past the Whomping Willow." Great job Black, just open your big mouth. I thought we were going to challenge them to a duel...  
  
Malfoy looked skeptical. "And how do we know that you're telling the truth?" he asked.  
  
"You don't. And you won't after I tell you, but it's all true, I'll swear on my mother's grave." Because she abandoned me and now my father did too, but at least he still sends me money for tuition and rent and stuff.  
  
Crabbe looked over at Malfoy. They didn't know anything about his family, obviously. "So go ahead, tell us how you get through."  
  
"Well, first you have to put on at least twenty pieces of silver jewelry, and then you have to get out your wand, point it at the tree and say "Petrificus Totalus", then the tree will freeze and you'll have ten seconds to climb to the top and say "open up", then the tree will open and you'll walk down some stairs into a tunnel." He took a breath. "When you get to the end of the tunnel there will be a door, and you'll have to use some fancy unlocking charm to undo the lock on it. I don't know what it is, Remus wouldn't tell me."  
  
Malfoy looked at Crabbe. "Thanks, Black. We'll be sure to return the favor sometime."  
  
***  
  
Remus looked at Sirius incredibly. "That's it? You didn't tell Snape how to get in or anything? You didn't even talk to Snape?"  
  
Sirius, still looking at the ground, spoke. "No, but I'm guessing they used him for their experiment. He probably hit the knot when he was climbing up, and the Petrificus Totalus thing actually did work, and he figured it out for himself. He probably had no idea what was waiting for him at the end of the tunnel, though." He looked up at Remus for the first time. "Gods, I'm sorry, Remus. Will you ever forgive me?"  
  
"I already did, Padfoot. It nearly lunchtime, though, and we've missed Potions. Good thing we're partners in that class, eh?" Sirius knew Remus was still upset that it had happened, but Moony knew the truth, and the real forgiveness would come in good time.  
  
"Yup, it is. Let's go get some lunch, Moony, I'm starving!"  
  
***  
  
AN: This is my first attempt to write HP fan fiction, so yeah. Please review. 


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